What is interesting about the article is that a January poll of 600 salons reported that 72% have seen customer spending slow down. Does this trend signal the end of fancy salons, or is it simply a product of the current economic downturn? According to the article, the main benefits of cutting your own hair are saving time and money -- as long as you remember to keep from clogging the drains.

One company benefiting from this run on home cuts is Wahl Clipper Corp., which saw clipper sales increase 10% in 2008 and believes sales will increase 11% in 2009. That's a lot of clippers folks. Now -- don't laugh -- but the Flowbee and the RoboCut (who knew they still made the Flowbee?) have seen sales increase thanks to the recession. And for the men like me, let's not forget the HeadBlade.

This hair cutting is just another humorous byproduct of the recession. Some people have turned to at-home haircuts (leading to a new need in salons, fixing bad haircuts), so how long before we come up with an indicator that determines how bad a recession is by measuring the number of home haircuts? Desperate times call for desperate indicators, such as the "underwear indicator." Seriously, this indicator suggests that men will try to make their underwear last longer during a period of financial strife, leading to lower underwear sales. Don't forget that some believe there is a "lipstick indicator," which measures the amount of personal spending by a rise or dip in lipstick sales (the indicator was "discovered" by the chairman of Estee Lauder).

One thing is certain, people will look anywhere for some indication that the economy is getting better rather than getting worse. Perhaps we could start tracking the number of "odd indicators" out there and make up our own indicator. The more weird indicators reported on show how desperate people are getting to hear some sort of good news, whether or not it is tracking sales of men's skivvies, or how many people are cutting their hair at home.